


Quiet Descent

by Reioka



Series: Flash Fics [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Flash Fic, Idiots in Love, M/M, Miscommunication, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 23:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15497556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reioka/pseuds/Reioka
Summary: Tony should have gotten off the elevator as soon as he saw that Bucky was on it.





	Quiet Descent

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the sentence prompt: “Of all the people I could’ve gotten stuck in an elevator with and it just had to be you.”

Quiet Descent

 

Tony was in hell.

 

Bucky had done an incredible physical feat by punching his metal arm through the roof of the elevator and grabbing onto the cable to keep them from plummeting to their deaths, instead slowly lowering them until they’d reached the bottom of the elevator shaft. And Tony appreciated that! He definitely liked not being dead. He was a fan of breathing.

 

But he would have been happier if it had been literally anyone else in the elevator with him but Bucky.

 

Bucky hadn’t talked to him for three weeks, ever since Tony had asked him out for dinner. Now, Tony had nothing against being turned down. He was used to it, despite what other people might have believed–lots of people he sincerely liked tended to reject him. And Tony would have been fine being in close quarters with Bucky, except… Bucky hadn’t even rejected him.

 

He’d just looked angry, turned on his heel, and left.

 

So! Okay! Tony understood that was technically a rejection, but he’d hoped that they’d be able to remain friends. Except… it seemed like they weren’t even that, now. Maybe it had just been his wishful thinking. Looking back on it, he’d always been the one to initiate spending time together, going out to eat or staying in and filling in the holes in Bucky’s pop culture education. Bucky had probably just been putting up with him, afraid he’d be kicked out if he didn’t entertain the landlord.

 

He should have just gotten off the elevator when he realized it was just him and Bucky, but he’d foolishly thought ‘hey, Bucky can handle my presence for a few minutes’ and stepped on anyway. Now Bucky was trapped in here with him for… who knew how long. He was already pissed off about it, clearly, with the way he kept sizing up the hatch in the top of the elevator and the concrete the doors had opened up to when he’d pried them apart.

 

“You… you can go,” Tony offered, and managed not to flinch when Bucky whipped toward him, scowling. “You can probably climb your way out.”

 

“Of all the people I could’ve gotten stuck in an elevator with and it just had to be you,” Bucky muttered. “At least Sam or Natasha could’ve climbed out too.”

 

Tony swallowed thickly. Yeah, they probably could have. “So sorry you got stuck here with the weakest link on the team,” he said, trying for levity and falling flat. He was aware that he was the squishiest person on the team, with bonus health problems thanks to the arc reactor. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Bucky was resentful that Tony was his forced companion. He’d be upset if he was stuck in an elevator with someone like him, too, if their roles were reversed.

 

“You can leave me here,” Tony repeated softly. “It’s fine. Just–just let someone know I’m down here so they can come get me.”

 

Somehow, Bucky looked even more pissed off. “You think I’m just going to leave you behind?!”

 

“Why not?” Tony asked, scowling back at him. “Listen, I know I’m the last person you wanted to be stuck with, but facts are facts. I’m not able to climb up. You don’t want to be stuck down here with me. You  _are_  able to climb up. You can leave me and get out of here at the same time. It’s a win-win for you.”

 

“What are you  _talking_  about?!” Bucky asked angrily. “You think I’m asshole enough to just leave you down here alone? Really?!”

 

“Well you don’t even like me so I don’t know why you care whether I’m down here alone or not!” Tony burst out, and then clenched his fists and turned so he couldn’t see him anymore. “Maybe if you go up there, they can get help to me faster.”

 

Bucky sputtered. “Whoa, hey, do you expect me to just ignore that?! What makes you think that I don’t like you?!”

 

“ _Maybe_  because you never took the initiative to hang out with me.  _Maybe_ because every time we did hang out, you acted like it was a chore.  _Maybe_ because you were mad that I was the one you were stuck with in here. Or  _maybe_ ,” he added, voice growing louder when Bucky tried to speak over him. “It’s because you HAVEN’T TALKED TO ME IN THREE WEEKS SINCE I ASKED YOU OUT.”

 

Bucky opened his mouth, closed it. Tilted his head and squinted at him for a moment. “…That was for real?”

 

If Tony had had something to throw at him besides his phone, he would have. Hell, the thing had no service anyway. He  _should_  have thrown it. “Of course it was real! And I actually would have preferred you telling me you didn’t want to date me instead of not talking to me for three weeks by the way. Yeah. That sucked,” he added acidly when Bucky began to look uncomfortable. “I thought we were friends but I guess not, if you think I’m just some asshole who asks people out as a joke–”

 

“I thought Stevie asked you to do it as a favor because he was tired of me pining,” Bucky admitted.

 

“And you thought I was the kind of person who would do it?!” Tony exclaimed. “Thanks a lot!”

 

“Well why would you ever want to date me!?” Bucky sputtered in disbelief.

 

“Because you’re nice to me? I don’t know if you’ve heard about my track record with dates, but the bar is  _awfully_  low,” Tony pointed out.

 

Bucky sputtered again. “That is  _preposterous_. You’re nice and smart and you’ve got an ass that won’t quit. You’ve gotta have tons of people that are lining up for the chance to date you.”

 

“Uh, yes?” Tony replied, raising his eyebrows. “Except you left out the most important part: I’m rich and they want money.”

 

“That’s stupid, you’re amazing!” Bucky exclaimed. “I don’t want money–I just wanna sit on the couch and pet your hair!”

 

“Well maybe if you hadn’t been a big old asshole we could’ve done that for the past three weeks!” Tony yelled.

 

The assassin lunged for him. Tony screamed, because this was not the way he wanted to die.

 

Bucky crowded him into the crumpled corner of the elevator, hands on either side of his head, and leaned in until he could feel Tony’s exhales on his chin. “I wanna hold your dumb hand, too.”

 

Tony blinked up at him, bewildered. “My hand’s not dumb!”

 

“If we were dating, I’d kiss you to shut you up,” Bucky said, and it sounded like a warning.

 

Tony would not know a warning if it slapped him across the face with a big red stop sign. “Oh no, kissing, what a hardship, you’re really making yourself a hard sell, Sergeant Icicle–”

 

“Thought it was my crippling PTSD and disassociation,” Bucky said, humor curling the corners of his mouth up.

 

“I may not have disassociation but I understand PTSD,” Tony replied softly. “Do you wanna talk about–”

 

Bucky absolutely did not, so he leaned in to kiss him quiet just like he’d threatened he would. He thought it might have been a really good kiss, except then Tony just sort of… jolted and started mumbling against his mouth. Bucky leaned back with a sigh. “What was that?”

 

“You really hurt my feelings when you ignored me,” Tony mumbled, embarrassed. “So you–you have to promise not to do that again. You can yell, or scream, or throw things… You–you can even throw things  _at_  me, but… but please don’t ignore me.”

 

“…The bar really  _is_  awfully low for you, isn’t it, sweetheart?” Bucky asked sadly. “You just tell me everyone who’s hurt you, and I’ll hunt them down and quietly murder them.”

 

Tony let out a little snort. “You should leave the jokes to me. Yours aren’t very funny.”

 

“…Right,” Bucky said after a too-long pause. “A joke. Haha.”

 

Tony scowled. “You are not allowed to hunt down and murder everyone that’s hurt me, Bucky.”

 

Bucky scoffed awkwardly. “Wha–well clearly not everyone, I mean, that would just make it a full time job at that point–”

 

“You get to hunt down and murder exactly  _zero people_ , Bucky.”

 

“Zero–come on! At least a little maiming? Just some very small torture devices.”

 

“I can’t have people asking me why the people who blast me on Twitter have mysteriously disappeared, Bucky.”

 

“…Please.”

 

“You can give them your murder face and nothing else.”

 

Bucky was pretty sure he could convince Steve to let him get away with some light maiming as long as he could prove that the person had hurt Tony. He got the feeling that he shouldn’t tell Tony that, though, and instead nodded, looking properly meek. “Alright. And I’ll–make up ignoring you. That was… childish.”

 

“Hey, no hard feelings. You don’t have to make up anything,” Tony cooed.

 

Bucky was angry that Tony actually seemed to believe that. “Well I’m gonna do it anyway.”

 

“You do whatever you need to do except murder people,” Tony replied, patting his cheek gently.

 

Bucky did not pout at the addendum, but only because he was a trained assassin. “Come on. Let’s get you out of this elevator. I’ll carry you.”

 

“Hng,” Tony said, and Bucky decided he’d remember that for later.


End file.
